Seven Golden Camels of Calarts Nostalgia...

Since I began this blog in 2005, I've wanted to do a post about Bob Winquist. Bob was of course the head of the character animation program at Calarts when I was there, and being Bob loomed large in the lives of most of his students. I've got very little on him, but what's there is cherce-in particular a bit of ephemera I came across by accident: an article in a women's/home magazine of the early 60s, with holiday crafts designed by Bob. There's yet another article on uber-chic-nutty 60s design with a walkthrough of his artistic home that's an eyepopper.
Bob was a noted designer, owner of his own firm in addition to taking over classes at Calarts in Design from his former teacher (at Chouinard) and friend, the late Bill Moore. But a little later for Bob's post--here's a left turn in the desert:

While rummaging through the Citizen Kane-arranged boxes in our basement looking for stuff to aid me in posting, I inadvertently found something I'd tried to find ages ago, looked for, and assumed I'd tossed away.
I'm the sentimental type and also love fun drawings, and so I kept this doodle left on my desk at Calarts in the winter of 1988/89. Here it is, in all its yellowed glory:

Self-portrait by Mark Kennedy as he was then.

He was probably 18 or 19. It's always nice to come back to your desk and find someone's bothered to leave you something like this, even if they just dropped by to ask for a book or to go get some coffee at the cafeteria.

He was one of the best draughstmen in the class. If I envied anyone's drawing ability, it'd be Mark's first among what was a passel of very precocious artists. That doesn't mean that others weren't terrific, just that his manner of drawing I found particularly appealing. He worked hard at improving it, too--he was very hard on himself for all his ability. I've found this to be a truism in many of the artists I most admire. I doubt it's a coincidence.

With that in mind I know he'd likely cringe at this being put up, but I hope not. It's just a 5 second sketch done 20 years ago, after all. But it still looks great to me.